


Lost and Found

by ThisShitMakesMeHard (Face_of_Poe)



Series: From Helmand to Harlan - Holidays with Tim and Raylan [7]
Category: Justified
Genre: Because also duh, M/M, Mostly Fluff, Post-Series, Tim followed Raylan to Miami, Valentine's Day, With a hint of raunchy, because duh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-28
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-04-28 14:23:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5093966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Face_of_Poe/pseuds/ThisShitMakesMeHard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Daddy’s always asking him for favors,” Willa continued amiably. “Tim says no, but ends up doing it anyway.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and looked down. “Did daddy forget something, too, and send you to find it?” </p>
<p>His eyes drifted back up to Winona’s, and they shrugged in tandem. “Want to go with that?” he asked. </p>
<p>“Yeah,” she agreed, nodding slowly and eyeing his bedraggled hair and tired eyes. “Let’s go with that.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost and Found

His eyes snapped open at the sound of the apartment door slamming closed, followed quickly by the patter of light feet across the linoleum entry and into the living room. His hand closed around the gun on the nightstand, before the sound of a familiar voice at once relaxed and scared the ever-loving shit out of him.

“Are you sure you left it here, sweetie?” Winona’s question carried through the thin door of the bedroom, and he lunged quickly out of bed, scrambling for the dresser drawer where he kept a couple changes of clothes, among… other things. “Did you leave it in dad’s car?”

“It’s _here_ ,” Willa’s voice was shrill with insistence. “Because dad helped me glue extra hearts on the card for Sam and we wanted to let it dry and then I forgot the box of valentines and I _can’t_ not have valentines for my class!”

He could hear the strained patience in Winona’s voice. “Of course not, honey. But they aren’t on the table and I don’t see them in your room.” No, they weren’t on the table, because he’d moved the damned things to _set_ the table for what was probably the only real dinner cooked in this apartment since it’d been occupied. “Hold on, maybe he put them in here with his things.”

_In where? No no no…_

The door opened while he had the t-shirt pulled half over his head, and Winona let out a soft gasp. “Oh! Raylan, I thought you’d be…” her voice trailed away, probably as she registered that his size, physique, and tattoos were very decidedly _not_ Raylan.

Willa crested the doorway as he wrestled the shirt down the rest of the way, and she smiled brightly at him in pleasant surprise before peering around for her wayward Valentine’s Day cards. “Hi, Tim!”

He closed his eyes. “Hey, Willa…”

“Tim works with daddy,” she informed Winona succinctly. Tim took the opportunity to not-so-subtly steer them back into the living area before Willa’s investigation led her to the box of condoms he’d just hastily tossed in the drawer and _Jesus fuck, where’s the lube bottle?_

“Ahh… yep, he does,” Winona allowed, managing an expression that was somehow crossed between confused, shocked, and _laughing her goddamn ass off_ all at once.

“Daddy’s always asking him for favors,” Willa continued amiably. “Tim says no, but ends up doing it anyway.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and looked down. “Did daddy forget something, too, and send you to find it?”

His eyes drifted back up to Winona’s, and they shrugged in tandem. “Want to go with that?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she agreed, nodding slowly and eyeing his bedraggled hair and tired eyes. “Let’s go with that.”

“Your, ah… your cards are on top of the fridge,” he mumbled, crossing to the kitchen and pulling down the box. “Raylan was supposed to drop them by this morning but he got, ah…” _his mind blown, among other things, until two in the morning, overslept his alarm, and rushed out the door late for a meeting_ , “distracted.”

Willa took it, thrilled. “Thanks, Tim!” She turned a conspiratorial eye on her mother. “Tim gives me candy when daddy’s not paying attention.”

“Like, once, I did that.” Which was a complete lie, he’d started keeping treats at his desk just for her visits. But she’d taken a liking to candy corn after Dan threw little treat bags from his wife at them last Halloween, and stocking up on November first clearance only seemed practical because what was she supposed to do until next Halloween? “Or maybe… no, just the once.” What did candy corn makers even _do_ the other eleven months out of the year? Maybe they spent that time making the next year’s candy corn. Like a flu shot. Which was about how Tim felt about candy corn, but Willa liked it, so. “I think it was sugar-free.” _Mental note: hit Google and find out if there’s such a thing as sugar-free candy corn._

Winona was now not even bothering to hide the grin, but she did look a shade contrite when she told him, “I knew he had an early meeting, is why I just let us in. Ah… sorry.” Willa retreated to the living room floor to take inventory of her valentines, leaving her mother and the man who had just rolled out of her father’s bed standing awkwardly in the kitchen together. “So anyway. We’ll just, ah…”

“Yeah…” Now to figure out how to explain this one to Raylan. “Um. Good to see you, Winona.”

Her mouth opened and closed a couple of times, before she offered, “You too, Tim,” and moved away to collect her daughter. He sighed and slumped heavily against the kitchen counter, and then straightened quickly when she turned back with a look like she knew she’d regret it later but couldn’t help herself. “Sorry, just… you are…” he raised his brows, waiting, “…gay.”

“Rumor has it.”

“Ah ha. It’s just. Raylan is… not.”

“Ehh…” he cocked his head to the side and wavered a hand. “He’s a little bit gay.”

“Really.”

“Yep.”

“Huh. Well. That’s… new.” _Not so much_. She shrugged and turned away again.

He almost let her get back out to gather up Willa, but an inexplicable urge to preempt a potential fight with her ex-husband made him stop her again. “Wait. Winona?” She turned again. “Just so you know, I don’t come around when Raylan has Willa. I know you two have an agreement about that sort of thing. She was gone already last night when…” he trailed away, watching Winona’s face shift yet again to a sort of stunned revelation. He winced. “Aaand… now I’ve said too much. Forget it. I’m here on an errand.”

“You made dinner,” she ignored him gleefully.

“I- sorry?”

“Raylan doesn’t cook.” She nodded towards the dishes in the sink, a bag of potatoes left sitting on the counter next to half an onion and a garlic bulb. _They’d barely made it through the meal, clean up never had a shot in hell._ “You made dinner. For the two of you. On Valentine’s Day.”

“If you tell anyone, I might have to kill you.” He was pretty sure he was joking. Like, ninety percent joking. _Depends who she tells_ , he reasoned.

She grinned lopsidedly. “How long have you been seeing each other?”

He willed the lie to slip out. “Like… six…” _Hours? Not realistic – it’d taken nearly that long to make and eat dinner, Raylan was very… distracting. Days? Willa had been over since Friday and Raylan had been out of town Wednesday and Thursday, so that didn’t really work either. Weeks? Weeks sounded good. “_ …months.” _Bastard._

Winona coughed, choked on air. “Six _months_?” Best not mention the six months before _that_ they’d been casually fucking, then. “And he never said anything?”

“Though shutting him up is often a challenge, Raylan’s strengths lie…” he searched for the words, “outside the realm of oral – verbal – _verbal -_ communication.” _But he does do some other amazing things with his mouth, once you_ do _shut him up_. “Let me rephrase that.”

“Please.”

“He thought you might be weird about the whole…” she waited, crossed her arms over her chest, “you know…” he gestured vaguely, “guy… gay… thing.”

“Jesus, Tim. What am I, an asshole?”

“No…”

She shook her head bemusedly. “I’m going to kick his ass,” she declared as she turned away a third and final time.

 

X---X

 

He’s late and flustered when he finally falls into the office an hour later, and he can feel Raylan’s eyes on him all the way to his desk. When he turns to glare at the older man, he’s got his phone tucked against his shoulder, leaning back in his chair with long legs splayed just so, and his eyes are dark and hooded in a way that tells Tim he’s still thinking _vividly_ about the night before.

And this morning.

Tim stares adamantly down at his desk until Raylan’s off the phone, and then he’s sauntering down the row of cubicles to Tim’s space, dropping a folder on Tim’s desk and leaning over him like he’s talking about… the carry-out menu for the Caribbean place across the street.

“You’re _late_ ,” Raylan breathes against his ear and it’s all he can do to keep his face impassive, staring down at the menu and _fried plantains actually sound kind of good, hm_. “You fall back asleep, Mister Ranger School Six-Thirty?”

“Well, we can thank your _good morning, goodbye_ blowjob for making _both_ of us late then.” He can just _hear_ Raylan’s Cheshire cat grin settling on his lips, so he decides to wipe it off. “S’all good though. Your ex-wife and daughter woke me up.”

Then he’s spinning as Raylan grabs the back of his chair and turns it around. “They did what now?”

His lips quirk. “I was mostly dressed before Winona stuck her head in the bedroom, she only got a bit of an eyeful.” Raylan’s eyes are a bit wide, but he was obviously fighting a smile. “It’s not funny.”

“It’s a little bit funny.”

“She said she’s gonna kick your ass.”

Raylan shrugs resignedly at that. “What did Willa think?”

“That you forgot something at home and sent me to get it, because in her seven-year-old eyes, our relationship is apparently summed up by me grudgingly granting you favors.”

His ensuing smile is downright obscene. “Weren’t so grudging last night.”

 

 

And when Raylan brings Willa by the office later that week after picking her up from school, she shyly drops a construction paper card on Tim’s desk and scampers quickly back to Raylan’s before he can read the scrawling marker that says _Dear Tim, thank you for helping find my cards. I hope you found what you were looking for too_ , and he thinks that, yes, maybe he has.


End file.
